Saat janmon ka bandhan
Posted on: September 30, 2026
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
| Blog Day : | 6648 | Post No. : | 20595 | Movie Count : | 5279 |
‘Wahem’ (1987) was produced by Rani Dhanraj, D Anand Raj and Nikhil Raj, The film was directed by Desh Gautam. The cast included Ravindra Mahajani and Sangeeta Naik in the lead roles with the supporting cast of Suresh Oberoi, Arvind Kirad, Padma Khanna and Mamta Rao (debutant).
This is the first film in which Sangeeta Naik was in the lead role. She is a familiar face for all those who had seen her in the TV serial, ‘Nukkad’ (1986-87) in the role of Radha. Prior to working in the films and TV Serial, Sangeeta Naik was a lecturer in English in Elphinstone College and was associated with Prithvi Theatres and Yatri Theater groups.
Sangeeta Naik occasionally worked in Hindi films during 1980s. The list of her filmography shows that she mostly worked in films which can be categorised as ‘middle of the road cinema’. Her first released film was ‘Andhi Gali’ (1984), a songless film directed by Buddhadev Dasgupta. Her second film, ‘Zevar’ (1986) directed by Basu Chatterjee was also songless. Thereafter, she worked in ‘Wahem’ (1987), ‘Rihaaee’ (1988), ‘Subah Hone Tak’ (1988), ‘Kasam Vardi Ki’ (1989) and ‘Bhabhi’ (1990). She has also worked in a couple of Malayalam films. ‘Soorajmukhi’ (1995) was her last Hindi film after which she took a long sabbatical from films and TV Serials.
The film’s lead actor, Ravindra Mahajani (07/10.1946 – 11/07/2023) was born in Belgaum (Belgavi). His father, H R Mahajani was a journalist, a freedom fighter and later, the Editor of Marathi newspaper, ‘Loksatta’, which belongs to Indian Express Group.
According to Ashok Saraf, a prominent Marathi and Hindi film actor, Ravindra Mahajani was a tall and the most handsome among the then Marathi film stars. Producer-director, V Shantaram signed him as a lead actor in his Marathi film, ‘Zunj’ (1975) opposite Ranjana Deshmukh. The film became a super hit and it opened the door for Ravindra Mahajani’s successful acting career. He dominated the Marathi film industry as a super-star during 70s and 80s. Because his face resembled that of Vinod Khanna, he was nick-named as ‘Vinod Khanna of Marathi films’.
Incidentally, Ravindra Mahajani made his debut in Hindi film with a small role of a Portuguese Inspector in ‘Saat Hindustani’ (1969). He reappeared in Hindi films in ’Bolo Re Chakradhari’ (1977), ‘Teen Cheharey’ (1979), Be-Aabroo’ (1983) in supporting roles. He got his first lead role in ‘Ganga Kinaare’ (1985) with Prema Narayan followed by ‘Wahem’ (1987) with Sangeeta Naik. He worked in about 12 Hindi films during 1977-1989. He once again reappeared in ‘Panipat’ (2019) along with his son, Gashmeer Mahajani which happened to be the last in his filmy career. So, Ravindra Mahajani started and ended his acting career with Hindi films though he has acted in about 70 Marathi films.
Ravindra Mahajani was found dead in his rented flat in Talegaon in the outskirt of Pune where he was living alone a secluded life for about a year while his wife and son were living in Mumbai. He had died of heart-attack on July 11, 2023, but his dead body was noticed only after 3 days.
I came to know about ‘Wahem’ (1987) when I was checking the filmography of Sangeeta Naik after watching her film, ‘Soorajmukhi’ (1992). I watched ‘Wahem’ (1987) as it was categorised as a suspense thriller and some on the social media flatforms had recommended to watch the film without revealing the climax. I watched the film only a couple of days back and I liked it.
The story of the film is as under:
The film starts with the marriage of Sameer (Ravindra Mahajani) with Suman (Sangeeta Naik). They live in a flat in Mumbai spending a happy and blissful married life. One night, Sameer watches Suman talking in her sleep to her brother-in-law (her sister’s husband), Rakesh (Arvind Kirad) in a sensuous voice with her expressions and gestures indicating some intimate pleasure. Sameer suspects his wife having an affair with Rakesh. He recalls his days when he was introduced to Suman by Rakesh, his college friend. He has recommended him to marry Suman. At that time, when she had liked a new costly carpet bought by Rakesh for his home, he had said that he would present the same to her as his wedding gift which he did on her wedding day. While giving her a send-off after the marriage, Rakesh has addressed her as his ‘aadhi gharwaali’ (half wife). All these incidences give fillip to his suspicion about Suman.
After Suman’s sleep-talk incidence, Sameer suspicion on Suman grows to such an extent that he starts overhearing her conversations with her maid during which she talks all good things about Sameer in third person which Sameer construes as meant for Rakesh. One day, he returns from his office late and without ringing bell, he opens the door slowly to check whether Suman is spending time with Rakesh. Instead, he finds her sleeping on the dining chair waiting for him to have dinner together. He experiences many such occasions which puts him in the quandary whether he is overdoing in his suspecting her. But he lapses into suspicion whenever he recalls Suman’s sleep-talk. He even thinks of consulting a psychiatrist.
With the suspicion on Suman, Sameer has lost his peace of mind. One day, he falls after dashing against the carpet injuring his fingers – the same carpet which Rakesh has gifted Suman on the wedding day. She immediately attends to him to bandage the injured fingers. At the same time, she insists that the carpet should be sold as it has given a bad omen. Sameer gives an advertisement in a newspaper about the sale of carpet. After reading the advertisement, Anthony Gonsalves (Suresh Oberoi) telephones Sameer showing his interest in buying the carpet. Sameer says that he can come and see the carpet. However, on the day of visit, Sameer is suddenly called to reach office. Anthony arrives when Suman is alone in the house. She takes him inside the house and requests him to wait for some time when her husband is expected to return from the office.
Once inside the house, Anthony initially behave normally with her waiting for Sameer to return. Since Sameer’s return is delayed, Anthony himself open the carpet to examine it. He is very happy that carpet is of high quality and as good as the new one. Suddenly, he sees on the carpet a couple of stains which he believes to be blood stains. This makes him violent. He charges Suman that like his wife, she is having affairs with her brother-in-law and the strain on the carpet is the proof that some murder has taken place in the same manner he had killed his wife after seeing her with another man. Anothny turns out to be a psychopathic criminal as in reality, there are no stain on the carpet.
It is a long scene (nearly one hour) between Suman and Anthony in the flat where she has no way to escape and Anthony is charging on her. In between Anthony has forced her to reveal her ‘affair’ with Rakesh which she reveals by way of flashback scenes between Suman and Rakesh of playful teasing and lighthearted banter before her marriage as generally happens between sister’s husband and the sister-in-law. At the sametime, Suman pours her feelings towards Rakesh when his marriage with her sister, Vandana (Mamta Rao) was fixed. During that period, Suman has developed an obsession to possess Rakesh and has dreamt of spending erotic night with him. She was so mad after Rakesh that at one time, she was praying for Rakesh and Vandana’s proposed marriage to break. Without her knowledge, Anthony has recorded whatever she had said about her feelings for Rakesh and has deleted whatever was in her favour. With this. Anthony is going to blackmail her in addition to her sister and brother-in-law.
In between Sameer telephones to Suman which Anthony takes and tells him that he has finalise the deal and his wife must be busy in other room to prepare the receipt. Thereafter, he breaks the telephone. He says that he is going to assault her as a punishment for the ‘illicit relationship’. Somehow, Suman is able to pick up a kitchen knife and throws at Anthony which hits him creating a deep wound and gets killed.
Having realised that she is in a grave situation, she decides to visit Sameer’s office to tell him all the facts about her obsession for Rakesh prior to his marriage with her sister. She takes out the door key from Anthony’s pocket. When she opens the door, she finds a woman (Padma Khanna) is standing who has come to enquire about her husband, Anthony who was supposed to visit the house for buying the carpet. Suman does not know how to handle her because Anthony has said that he has killed his wife for her infidelity.
I will stop here from narrating the climax because the end is an interesting anti-climax.
I had no great expectations as the film was an obscure one without any star actors in its cast. But the film was so absorbing that I watched the film in one sitting. It is a psychological suspense thriller with a small complements of actors (six), other than junior artists. Even though Ravindra Mahajani and Sangeeta Naik are in lead roles, Suresh Oberoi has a pivotal role who has a continuous scenes with Sangeeta Naik of about one hour that too in a flat. Suresh Oberoi as a psychopathic criminal has given an outstanding performance along with Sangeeta Naik. Ravindra Mahajani as a suspicious husband has a challenging role as he has to perform as an adoring husband to his wife when situation dramatically changes compelling him to doubt himself whether he is right in suspecting his wife having an affair with her brother-in-law.
The film had two songs – one each written by Ram Bhardwaj and Nida Fazli which were set to music by Vishal Bhardwaj and Manas Mukherjee, respectively. The songs of the film were not officially released on any record labels. The film makes a debut on the Blog with it 1st song, ‘saat janmon kaa bandhan ab hai saajan mere’ written by Ram Bhardwaj and set to music by his son, Vishal Bhardwaj. The song is rendered by Asha Bhosle who sings for Sangeeta Naik.
The context of the song is that after Sameer (Ravindra Mahajani) and Suman (Sangeeta Naik) get married, she reaffirms her vow taken during the ‘saat phere’ part of the marriage celebration to be together during their next seven births. The song is to show how much Suman loves Sameer despite the fact that before the marriage, she had an obsession with her brother-in-law, Rakesh (Arvind Kirad).
Incidentally, this is the first song, music director, Vishal Bhardwaj composed for a Hindi film, that too on the lyrics penned by his father, Ram Bhardwaj.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Saat janmon kaa bandhan(Wahem)(1987) Singer-Asha Bhonsle, Lyricist-Ram Bhardwaj, MD-Vishal BhardwajChorus
Lyrics :
aaa aa aa aa aaaaa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aaa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
saat janmon kaa bandhan
ab hai saajan mere ae
saat janmon kaa bandhan
ab hai saajan mere ae
tere sang liye hain aen
hamne saat phere
saat janmon kaa bandhan
jab se huyee hoon
piyaa main tumhaaree
jab se huyee hoon
piyaa main tumhaaree
dil meraa bas mein naheen hai
saansen tumhaaree
khushbhoo tumhaaree
meraa kuchh bhee naheen hai
pyaar ke geet tum mein
mere dil mein bhee tere ae
tere sang liye hain aen
hamne saat phere
saat janmon kaa bandhan
aa aa aa la la la laa laa
pa ma dha
pa pa dha
sa ni dha pa
ma ga ma ga re
ma pa
?? sa ni dha pa
re pa ma re sa
soorat se ?? kee bas hai saajan
meree in do aankhon mein
choree ke dar se na kholoon
palken balma raaton mein
palken balma raaton mein
ankhiyon kee galiyon mein
hain sapnon ke dere ae
tere sang liye hain aen
hamne saat phere
saat janmon kaa bandhan
aawaaraa mausam
badan choomtaa hai
dhara naachtee hai
gagan jhoomtaa hai
aawaaraa mausam
badan choomtaa hai
dhara naachtee hai
gagan jhoomtaa hai
chhede saagar ko lehren
tum hee bataao
ham kyaa karen
tum hee bataao
ham kyaa karen
raat ke honthhon ko
choomte hain savere ae
tere sang liye hain aen
hamne saat phere
hamne saat phere
hamne saat phere
hamne saat phere
hamne saat phere
September 30, 2026 at 12:49 pm
We were always told that Vishal Bharadwaj debuted in 1995 …. ABHAY, a children’s film directed by Annu Kapoor. FAUJI also came in the same year. MAACHIS, 1996, brought him recognition and fame. But, we see that he debuted 8 years earlier!!!!
On Wed, Sep 30, 2026, 12:00 Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi
LikeLike